The present invention relates to a venetian blind assembly. In particular, the invention relates to the operational feature of a venetian blind assembly which acts to raise and lower the slats.
This particular feature has in the past been linked to accidents in the home by way of a characteristic feature of prior art assemblies, as will be discussed herein. The raising and lowering the slats of a blind is accomplished generally by way of a unitary cord having its two free ends fastened to the bottom rail or base, strung through the holes in the slats, through the head of the blind, and into and out of a cord lock, to form a loop exiting from the head. When the loop is pulled down, the bottom rail raises and collects the slats on the way up. When the bottom rail and slats are all the way up the cord lock is shifted to the locked position, thus securing the blind in opened status. However, when the blind is fully opened, the cord is correspondingly pulled down toward the floor, and collects with the rest of the cord on the floor making it extremely unsafe for anyone passing in proximity. Children, babies or animals may pass by the loop and get tangled, inadvertently pulling the cord so as to accidentally open the cord lock, thus releasing the blind downward with all its weight, which in turn pulls the pull cord (the loop) up with a sudden powerful motion, and possibly trapping a person or object in the loop with severe consequences.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to eliminate this problem of the hazardous pull cord loop.